Tag Archives: Texas Legislature
Empower Texans Loses Big on Election Night
The trend of Empower Texans’ influence at the Texas Capitol dwindling continues.
Illustration/Sunny Sone Empower Texans, the aggressively reactionary group funded by oil and gas barons Tim Dunn and Farris Wilks, wasted a lot of money this ye...Read More
Texas Ends Contracts for Anti-Abortion Group Tapped to Provide Women’s Health Services
The announcement comes two weeks after the Observer reported that the Heidi Group served just 3,300 of the 70,000 patients it promised.
The Texas health agency announced late on Friday that it will terminate the state’s multi-million-dollar family planning contracts with the Heidi Group, the a...Read More
The Soul-Crushing Emptiness of the Texas Governor’s Race
Greg Abbott was frustratingly vague and dodgy in the one and only gubernatorial debate, delivering the tacit message that he has little to do with the governance of the state.
The race for Texas governor this year is a deadening absurdity between two low-energy politicians with spotty records. An empty suit with a gargantuan checking ...Read More
Texas Anti-Abortion Family Planning Group Promised to Serve 70,000 Women. It Served 3,300.
But the state keeps renewing its multimillion-dollar contract.
Anti-abortion activist Carol Everett had no experience running a family planning program when the state of Texas awarded her millions in taxpayer funds to help ...Read More
Pete Gallego and Texas Democrats Once Again Snatch Defeat from Jaws of Victory
In what should have been an easy win in San Antonio, Democrats managed to lose a seat they’ve held for 139 years.
The defining attribute of Trump era special elections has been tectonic shifts from red to blue, fueled by highly energized voters. Democrats have flipped more...Read More
Judge Blocks Texas’ ‘Near Catastrophic’ Fetal Burial Law
A state law requiring women to bury or cremate fetal remains from miscarriages and abortions has been blocked by a federal judge.
A federal judge blocked Texas’ fetal burial law on Wednesday, writing that the legislation would “likely cause a near catastrophic failure of the healthcare...Read More
Why is Texas’ Leading GOP Think Tank Suddenly All-In on an Anti-Wind Crusade?
The Texas Public Policy Foundation’s latest PR blitz is the kind of thing you’d expect to see from a seedy advocacy group, not a would-be policy braintrust.
If you were a newcomer trying to figure out how Texas politics works, a good start would be to look at the state’s two leading think tanks. The center-left Ce...Read More
Texas Lawmaker Sponsors Far-Right Rally Against ‘Far-Left Violence’
“They’re right-wing extremists, but events like this attract white supremacists as well, because these ideologies line up.”
An East Texas lawmaker is sponsoring a “March Against Far-Left Violence” at the Texas Capitol Saturday — one of at least eight marches around the country ...Read More
‘Stalwart Battler for Justice’: Remembering Babe Schwartz (1926-2018)
In the Texas Senate, Schwartz was a constant delight, swift as a bolt of lightning, who could rhetorically eviscerate an opponent with his rapier wit.
Babe Schwartz, a former state senator from Galveston, died last week at 92. He was described by Houston Chronicle columnist Patti Kilday Hart as “one of the m...Read More